# Web scraping article, episode 1 **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [February 6, 2007, 12:38am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/web-scraping-article-episode-1/84560 "2007-02-06T00:38:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![splattael](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/858c86/32.png) [@splattael](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/splattael)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2007, 12:38am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/web-scraping-article-episode-1/84560/1 "2007-02-06T00:38:35Z")
Hi all, Once upon the time I wrote a silly little article on web scraping with Ruby: [http://www.rubyrailways.com/data-extraction-for-web-20-screen-scraping-in-rubyrails](http://www.rubyrailways.com/data-extraction-for-web-20-screen-scraping-in-rubyrails) The article got very popular somehow, so I have decided to continue with it - and since a lot of people kept me asking for the next installment that I promised at the end of the first part, I would like to announce it also here: [http://www.rubyrailways.com/data-extraction-for-web-20-screen-scraping-in-rubyrails-episode1/](http://www.rubyrailways.com/data-extraction-for-web-20-screen-scraping-in-rubyrails-episode1/) The article is quite different from my original plans, (and hence I guess from the expectations) because something happened in between - well, read the article and you will see what 🙂 Cheers, Peter \_\_ [http://www.rubyrailways.com](http://www.rubyrailways.com) ---
**Author:** ![splattael](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/858c86/32.png) [@splattael](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/splattael)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2007, 8:59am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/web-scraping-article-episode-1/84560/2 "2007-02-08T08:59:35Z")
Try Dapper ([http://www.dappit.com/](http://www.dappit.com/)), it may turn your screen scraping problem into an xml parsing problem. pt. ---
**Author:** ![splattael](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/858c86/32.png) [@splattael](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/splattael)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2008, 10:09am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/web-scraping-article-episode-1/84560/3 "2008-08-19T10:09:49Z")
wooops ignore my last comment, it was to the completely wrong thread ---
**Author:** ![splattael](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/858c86/32.png) [@splattael](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/splattael)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2008, 10:08am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/web-scraping-article-episode-1/84560/4 "2008-08-19T10:08:47Z")
many thanks for both of your replies ---
**Author:** ![splattael](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/858c86/32.png) [@splattael](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/splattael)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2007, 9:12am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/web-scraping-article-episode-1/84560/5 "2007-02-08T09:12:36Z")
Parker T. wrote: > Try Dapper ([http://www.dappit.com/](http://www.dappit.com/)), it may turn your screen scraping > problem into an xml parsing problem. I have been playing around with dapper, and while I liked the idea, and also the GUI (scRUBYt! currently does not have any kind of GUI, so dappit is a clear winner here) I found several problems. First of all I could not reliably scrape everything I wanted as I wanted (i.e. 100% accuracy, every records found ect) nearly on any page I tried - which is not the case with scRUBYt!. Of course there are bugs and problems and needed enhancements in scRUBYt! too, but I have total control over these (and anybody who is able to hack with Ruby on an intermediate level). Besides this, I have the extractor - I know what’s happening all the time. And if this is still not enough I can sprinkle the whole stuff with pure Ruby code. Then I don’t really like the model that your extractor is on the server - what if you would like to scrape confidential data, or you are logging in to sites with passwords, or to your banking account or … The idea is really neat and I am sure dapper has a lot of use cases, but it’s quite a different product with different philosophy and target audience compared to scRUBYt! Shortly, you should use the right tool for the right job - and for the things I would like to scrape, scRUBYt! is much better suited. I am sure dapper is great for other kind of things, so if you are into those, it’s a great tool! Cheers, Peter \_\_ [http://www.rubyrailways.com](http://www.rubyrailways.com) [http://scrubyt.org](http://scrubyt.org)